Stick a fork in former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, because she’s done. Take her off the grill. She’s overcooked. And other grilling cliches.

When the Dane was No. 1 in the world without winning a Slam, playing almost every week while Serena Williams and the other big hitters were on the sidelines injured or in slumps, pundits wondered how long the blonde baseline bunter could maintain. But now with Serena back at full strength, Victoria Azarenka at No. 1 in the world and hungry, and Maria Sharapova healthy and seeking more Slam titles, it looks like Wozniacki is destined to go by the wayside as a No. 1 to never win a Slam.

On Tuesday at the US Open the Dane, seeded No. 8 and fighting a knee injury, lost 6-2, 6-2 to Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, who had never beaten a Top 10 player, or much of anyone besides that.

“I still don’t really know what happened tonight…it’s the first Top 10 player I’ve beaten and I’m really happy,” said Begu, 0-5 against Top 10ers entering the match. “I had nothing to lose tonight. I had the right tactics from the beginning and played the same from beginning to end — I served really well, too, which was the key.”

Wozniacki hasn’t won a tour title in over a year, and will now have plenty of time to assess her career to date, and make decisions on whether she wants to pair with a coach who can take a more aggressive approach to her game, or continue to bunt balls in and maintain a career in the bottom half of the Top 10.

“I definitely felt I couldn’t hit through her today like I wanted to,” said Wozniacki, who can count on one hand the number of top players she has hit through on tour. “I’ve had [the knee] examined and I’ve had treatment on it. I think it’s a temporary issue. Hopefully it will get better quickly.

“The Grand Slams this year haven’t been great for me. After the year’s finished I’ll evaluate what was good and what wasn’t so good, and we’ll work from there. But I have plenty of years left in me. And this year isn’t even over yet. Hopefully I can turn it around and play even better.”

Lower-seed upsets were aplenty on Tuesday, led by Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens who toppled (21) Christina McHale in three, followed by American Sloane Stephens who decisively stopped (22) Francesca Schiavone in straights, and Czech Andrea Hlavackova who halted (24) Klara Zakopalova in straights, and Japan’s Ayumi Morita who surprised (26) Monica Niculescu in straights, and Belarus’ Olga Govortsova who startled (29) Tamira Paszek in straights, and finally Russian Elena Vesnina, who stopped (32) Peng Shuai in straights.

Former No. 1 and unseeded Venus Williams was also a decisive winner, dismissing fellow U.S. Fed Cup teammate and wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 6-1. The elder Williams sister will next face Top 10 German Angelique Kerber.

“I have to put a lot of balls in the court and execute my game well if I want to win against her,” Williams said of Kerber in some startling insight into her strategy. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Qualifiers also had a banner day Tuesday, including winners Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain (d. Shahar Peer), German Tatjana Malek, Russian Olga Puchkova beating American Irina Falconi in three, and Brit Johanna Konta.

“I tried to analyze my game, and my game was great from the start to the end,” said Djokovic, who was broken in his first service game but swept to victory in a little over an hour. “It’s also important for me to try to be as economical with the time I spend on the court as possible, but obviously not underestimating any opponent. I played really focused, tried to get to the net also. It was great all in all.”

Let’s get on to the non-walkovers.

No. 15 seed Milos Raonic tried his best to choke away a match to Colombian Santiago Giraldo before coming back from 1-2 sets down and a break to win 6-4 in the fifth.

“I’m just happy with the outcome and that I managed to sort of make the most of that moment and just find a way to win,” said Raonic of avoiding the choke. “Everything else I’ve gotta hope gets better in the next round. I don’t think I struggled with my serve that much in a long, long time. A lot of double faults, and it wasn’t just one double fault per game. When I double faulted, I double faulted consistently a couple times in a row, so that made my job a lot more difficult and it gave him a little bit more freedom at the same time.”

No. 10 seed Juan Monaco was shown the hotel shuttle by Spaniard Guillermo “G-Lo” Garcia-Lopez, who from two sets down won 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(6), 7-6(3).

Anyone see that the US Open STILL has to name the Lucky Loser who will take David Nalbandian’s place in the draw? Considering that they knew yesterday that Nalby was pulling out, how is it fair for them to tell this poor guy that he’ll be playing Juan Martin Del Potro just a few hours before the match?

I watched Raonic yesterday. I thought he could be may favorite player when Federer retires. I think I have to look somewhere else. I don’t think he would go very far. None of the new ones I have seen so far can get anywhere near the current top players.

Wozniacki was a reluctant number one. She was never meant to become number one because she did not really have the game to be considered the best in the field. She got there prematurely through no fault of her own. She got lucky that the top players were either injured or have not fully bloomed yet (as in the case of Azarenka).

i’ll give caroline a small pass on this one seeing as who she had a knee problem. but overall, yeah, she needs to get going or she’ll be the next jankovic or dementeiva.

clean win from novak last night. serena looking like her usual powerhouse self. thank god raonic pulled out the win. he can’t be losing this early on. he was ousted round 2 in wimbledon. he needs better results.

RZ Says: “…how is it fair for them to tell this poor guy that he’ll be playing Juan Martin Del Potro just a few hours before the match?”

If they tell him 5 minutes before he has to play he should consider himself luck – he did, after all, LOSE in the qualifiers, and if he happens to still be around to take an UNDESERVED place in the draw, he should do a rain dance or say a prayer or play the lottery…whatever one does when one gets very lucky.

BTW, I don’t know if you saw, but it’s Florent Serra. Not exactly Nalbandian, but no slouch either.

I hope Nadal recovers fully. Somebody has to give Djokovic competition. Federer may be tough until next year but two years from now, I don’t expect him to be as competitive as he currently is. Without Federer and Nadal, Djokovic will win everything. Maybe Murray will be his competition but so far, he has not shown that. I don’t see any great young competitor in the horizon.

Polo
absolutely I agree with you 100% Without Fed tennis will be entering dark ages without real quiding and direction .

But you can be assured Fed will continue to dominate this current generation, untill there will be a new contendor from younger generation.
Fed will have destroyed his generation and kept the next at bay and finally defeats that generation.

I think Federer will continue playing as long as he remains top 4. Given his current form and the rankings, 6,000 or so points gets you into the top 4. As long as he is in the top 4, he gets to the semi without facing another top 4 person, and then anything can happen.

I don’t think Federer will languish the way Sampras did (he had dropped out of top 10 by the time he reached 2002 USO). Or like Connors – who remarkably reached the semi at USO at age 39 – but wasn’t really a factor in slams after 1984, when he turned 32.

For all the people who like to put down women’s tennis, you should be watching this match between Kim Clijsters and Laura Robson. No shrieking, if that’s your complaint; fairly good serving, though second serves can be vulnerable; hard/big hitting, sharp angles, etc. Very competitive nice tennis.

Wow! Congrats to Laura. Great win for her. Hope this is the start of good thing for her. As for Kim, well, she is won 3 USO and 1 OZ. a very successful second career. Wish her and her family all the best. Ciao Kim!

Senthill, we will see if fed announces his retirement that way, he might just fade into the sunset after his last slam…
Laura ought to make a run of it now, if she has stopped Kim. Can’t enjoy her win the way I would against just about any other player!

I’m thrilled that Laura Robson got a big win (go Team GB!) but sad to see Kim Clijsters end her tennis career. For young girls interested in sports, I can’t think of a better role model than Kim Clijsters. She’s shown throughout her career that one can be being a highly competitive athlete and champion while also being a kind, warm person and a class act. (And that one can hit the crap out of the ball without shrieking).

MMT, I thought Florent Serra did very well considering he only had a few hours’ notice. I get your point about being grateful to be in as a lucky loser, but I don’t understand how the tournament could not have figured out the ranking order (i.e., first alternate) of the lucky losers until the day one is needed. They could have done that as early as last Friday since that was the day the Qualifying tournament ended. That way, Serra would have known as of yesterday that he was going to play today for sure.

It was sad to see Kim retire today. Kim Clijsters inspired every girl to follow their dreams and at the same time also enjoy time with their family.

She was a true champion who remains the only player to win 3 GS after having a child…that in itself is quite a big achievement , she broke the dogma of our society where it is thought mothers can not achieve the same as compared to others. She will be missed but will always be a role model to every women to go on and live their dreams.

I’d also like to express my sadness over Clijsters’ retirement. She was THE role model of a tennis player, imho. I don’t think there has been a player who was more liked by both fans and other players. It’s also regrettable that there’s one less player – from a limited pool – to challenge Serena.

Another non competitive Arthur Ashe night match, but wow what a match between clijsters and robson. Great for Laura to finally get a big win. Perhaps this will open doors for her. Maybe got a boost from her silver medal?

racquet, agree about Kim. I guess she was on the opposite half of the draw as Serena, but in a final, yes, she might’ve challenged her. Actually the women’s draw is very top heavy. On the bottom the main possible threats to Serena are Kerber and Aggy. Maybe Bartoli but I doubt it. Sharpie, Vika, Kim (was), Petra, Li Na, Sam are all on the top.

Both Maria and Andy’s outfits are made out of that similar fabric that has the wet-look.

Kimberly, “Another non competitive Arthur Ashe night match” – did you hear the commentators talking earlier, during Maria’s match, about whether they’d be better off scheduling more competitive matches on Ashe rather than the ones we’ve seen the last couple nights? Certainly Nole’s, Serena’s, Maria’s and Andy’s matches have all been really straightforward. Fed’s was slightly more competitive, in the third set especially, but all of the night matches on Ashe so far have been straight setters. I think one of the commentators (Mary Jo?) concluded that it doesn’t matter because people who come in the evenings are paying to see the stars/top players. But she did say that the tournament should schedule a potentially more competitive match on Ashe “during the day session” to balance things out.

It’s true: some early round matches/opponents can be dangerous for sure. That’s why the seeded players say they don’t take any opponents for granted and stay dialled in during their matches right from the beginning.

Can’t say how well Murray played because dodig was hitting out of the court on a lot of shots.He’s also not a great mover. The slams are helpful to the top players as they can play themselves into form, but the matches are not top quality. Agree, that we can’t see the form of the players until R16, when they face the tougher opponents.

Laura Robson is Aussie (born in Melbourne) girl but it is OK, you can claim it as yours, we don’t mind:) Very wealthy family, father oil executive, mother former basketball player and coach.
She is only 18 and has nice future. Maybe it is simbolyc that the player on the rise played the great Kim at her last USO.
Good luck Laura.

^you dont know that,it didnt happen,he played Rafa and beat Rafa fair enough,to talk about what would have happened against this player or that player is pointless,and just idle speculation,sure you can give credit to Rosol for the win,but you cant give Fed,Novak,Murray etc etc credit for something that never even happened^.

Fed did it on numerous occasions. Turning a match when down.
Rafa got his chance against Rosol and failed, miserably I may add.

Fed just refuses to loose in those circumstances. It just shows the greater fighting spirit, true warrior. Fed is relentless in his queest against those lower ranked players. If there is a way Fed will find it. Kid me not that Rosol out of the blue would defeat an elite player. Fed would have found a way against Rosol.

‘I just read that Andy’s next match is scheduled for Saturday!?? What is it with the USO and scheduling? The worst of all the slams.’ A WELL KNOWN FACT! It’s beyond crazy the way they schedule the matches!

“you dont know that,it didnt happen,he played Rafa and beat Rafa fair enough,to talk about what would have happened against this player or that player is pointless,and just idle speculation,sure you can give credit to Rosol for the win,but you cant give Fed,Novak,Murray etc etc credit for something that never even happened”

well said alison!

but i seriously fail to understand sienna’s obsession with nadal, she’s so stuck up with him!

btw super-wishful thinking that any of the top-5 woulda beaten nadal! we clearly know people were fantasising about nole dusting nadal in RG too, but we all know what happened. in fact most of this has got to do with the fact that beating nadal is so difficult that none of the current top players for the 5 or 6 years have managed it more than twice, nole just has beaten him thrice in his career and people’re going out of their way to pin their hopes on him beating nadal again and again out of sheer desperation. this is so creditable on nadal’s part actually that he hasn’t let anyone beat him more than thrice in his peak year! that speaks volume of nadal’s greatness and perhaps explains the desperation of some fed fans to pinall their hopes on nadal getting beaten by every other guy on tour! may be they keep praying for it too all the day!

last but not the least, there’s no guarantee that some x beat nadal means the better player y would also beat nadal! if life were so simple as simple arithmetic, there would have been so many socrates or confucious!